S.F. parking cops fear abuse with pricier tickets

SAN FRANCISCO Transit agency OKs the hefty hikes starting in July to help balance city's looming deficit

Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Dozens of San Francisco parking-control officers spent their lunch break at City Hall on Tuesday to fight higher parking fines - a move the ticket givers say will only mean more grief from angry drivers.

"Raising parking fines will lead to more abuse on the streets," said Luis Estrella, a San Francisco parking-control officer for the past eight years who said he was punched last year by a firefighter who got a $50 ticket.

At issue is the Municipal Transportation Agency's plan to help balance the books by tacking on $10 to every ticket now set at $90 or less. Neither Estrella nor his uniformed colleagues testified at a public hearing on the proposal Tuesday; they left the official talking to union representatives.

Despite their concerns, the agency's governing board gave unanimous approval to the fine increase, which - barring extraordinary intervention by the Board of Supervisors - will go into effect July 1.

Downtown meter violations, for example, will be fined up to $60, and parking in a street-cleaning zone will set drivers back $50. The city now makes about $90 million a year from parking fines. The increase would bring in an estimated $13 million more in the new fiscal year.

Antonio Parra, a deputy chief in the San Francisco Police Department who also serves as head of parking enforcement for the Municipal Transportation Agency, said that physical attacks against parking control officers are infrequent but that verbal assaults are an everyday part of the job.

He wouldn't say whether he believes the higher fines will make it tougher on his enforcement crew, but said he will step up efforts to make sure they know how to protect themselves and to defuse potentially ugly confrontations, and to make sure they have the continued support of police and prosecutors.

Higher fines are just one component of the plan to balance the proposed $787 million annual operating budget for the agency, which runs the city's public transit, parking enforcement and traffic regulation operations.

The cost of a residential parking permit will go up $14, to $74, and the charge for getting a tire clamp, known as the boot, removed from cars that have accumulated five or more unpaid parking citations will nearly triple to $205.

The city also will charge property owners more to get a curb painted red, green, yellow or white to restrict parking. The cost of temporary street-closure permits will be higher, too.

But with the backdrop of what he termed a budget crisis, agency board member Malcolm Heinicke said difficult choices had to be made.

"I want people to know: We heard the frustration," he said.

Muni fares will not go up in the upcoming fiscal year, but riders should brace for an increase in July 2009. Under city law, the board had to approve not only a budget for the fiscal year starting in July, but also an $820 million operating budget for the year after. The 2009-10 budget proposal, which could be changed next year, calls for a $10 increase on the regular $45 monthly transit pass for adults and a $5 increase for the monthly discounted passes for seniors, the disabled and young people, which now cost $10.

Taken off the table for the 2009-10 fiscal year was a plan to enact a 50-cent-an-hour increase to parking meter rates. However, city officials are planning to revamp parking meter charges based on demand, meaning that in certain locations and at certain times of the day, prices would go up when demand is high.

The agency's governing board also signed off on a plan, beginning in 2010, to impose automatic fare, fee and fine hikes based on inflation or a similar economic indicator. Those details still must be worked out.

Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the Municipal Transportation Agency, said all efforts will be made to hit up the public for more money in the next couple of years. He said the agency will hunt for more ways to cut expenses and to raise revenue by such means as plastering more advertising on parking garages.

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